


The Devil Doesn't Celebrate Christmas

by SariffShadowDragon



Category: Lucifer (TV)
Genre: Case Fic, Christmas, Gen, Mentions of abuse/homophobia, Mild Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 16:02:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13298340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SariffShadowDragon/pseuds/SariffShadowDragon
Summary: Linda asks Lucifer about how he's celebrating Christmas and something she says gets him to doubt himself and he begins acting really strange while they're solving a case which he keeps attempting to relate to A Christmas Carol for some reason.





	The Devil Doesn't Celebrate Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> So originally I had this big idea planned out for a grand case fic where the suspects would be like the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future, the victim was Scrooge, etc, but something happened halfway through and it sort of changed and then Lucifer just got really sad and depressed and to be quite honest I have no idea what even happened. I feel like this story is kind of disjointed and I apologize for that, but I was having trouble keeping my focus while writing it, so there you go. I tried my best.
> 
> Fun fact: the murder victim in this is my girlfriend's boss who both of us hate, one of the people they question is based on my girlfriend and all the horrible stuff that is said about this person is real stuff my gf's boss has said and done. So basically I wrote this for her for cathartic reasons

Loud music blared within the walls of Lux. There was a large crowd that night and the sensory overload was almost dizzying; so basically, it was a night like any other night at the devil's club.

Linda was able to jump the line and was let right in by the bouncer who knew her by sight and smiled at her. She made her way down the stairs into the club and looked around until she found Lucifer, who appeared to be surrounded by women wearing sexy Santa outfits. Linda cringed inwardly as she approached.

“Ah, hello, doctor!” Lucifer called out with a large grin on his face as Linda approached. “Have you come to join the festivities?”

Linda glanced around and noticed most of the dancers were similarly dressed to the ones surrounding Lucifer. “I'm surprised by the theme tonight,” she said with a raised eyebrow. “I was under the impression you wouldn't like this time of year.”

“What, Christmas? I love Christmas! All the materialism and peppermint flavored things, not to mention my lovely Santa girls here.” He smiled at one of the dancers who blew him a kiss, and he seemed momentarily put into a trance.

Linda let out a heavy breath. Being Lucifer's therapist-- not to mention the only human who knew his secret, that he was the actual devil-- she'd have thought she would've gotten used to his antics by now. Why was this even surprising to her? She rolled her eyes and sat down next to Lucifer as he made one of the women who were sitting with him move aside. The two women who had been sitting on either side of him went off together somewhere else.

“Well, I suppose it makes sense. You do enjoy embracing materialism, don't you?” Linda said. Lucifer raised an eyebrow at her and quirked his lips.

“Well, of course! It's in my nature, doctor. And if I couldn't enjoy Christmas, what sort of Scrooge would that make me? I wouldn't be any fun at all.”

“I just thought that, given the... significance of this holiday--” Linda started to say, but Lucifer cut her off with an overly dramatic sigh.

“Please, I'd rather not think about that. Besides, no one celebrates Christmas for that reason anymore. Christmas is all about a jolly fat man giving people what their hearts desire the most. And doesn't that just sound like the perfect holiday for me?” He grinned before adding, “And of course he also punishes all of the naughty ones.”

 _Is he seriously comparing himself to Santa Claus right now?_ Linda thought to herself. She cleared her throat and said aloud, “I thought Christmas was a holiday about being together with one's family.”

Lucifer rolled his eyes. “Please, have you met my family?”

“Yes, I have,” Linda said quite directly. She'd met both his mother and father as well as one of his brothers, plus he'd talked about a couple of his other siblings as well. His family was nuts.

“Then I think you can see why I wouldn't want to be around any of them when we're supposed to be having fun.” Lucifer took a swig from his glass, carefully avoiding eye contact with Linda. “I don't see the point of forcing people to be with their families when they don't even like each other.”

“Well, I suppose I can't argue with that,” Linda mumbled a bit to herself, thinking of the fact she didn't have a family to go see this year. “But, you know, it doesn't just have to be about biological family. It can be the people you care about the most. Friends, loved ones, you know.” She smiled and raised an eyebrow at him, clearly trying to indicate something to him, but Lucifer didn't get it.

“What do you think I'm doing now, doctor? I'm surrounded with people who love me!” He spread his arm out to indicate the packed club. “If you ask me, this is exactly what Christmas is all about.”

“So you weren't going to spend time with Chloe at all?” Linda said. She almost regretted it as soon as it came out of her mouth. Almost, but not quite.

Lucifer frowned and turned his gaze away from her. “I'm sure she's busy with her own family, I wouldn't want to bother her.”

“Is that so? Maybe you should clear that with her before writing it off.”

Lucifer clenched his jaw and sighed, taking another long drink from his glass.

#

“And you know what she said? She thought that you would actually like to spend Christmas with me! Isn't that just the most preposterous thing you've ever heard? Well, then again, I suppose I couldn't blame you if you did. Everyone wants to be around me.”

Chloe groaned a little as she walked toward the crime scene with Lucifer following behind her and never shutting up. She wondered how it was he was able to keep talking so long without even taking a breath. It was making her feel out of breath just listening to him.

“Honestly this isn't the time to be talking about that,” she finally huffed out. “We've got a dead woman in here.”

“Well how is that different from any other time? It's not like she's going to stop being dead, but we need to talk about this--”

Chloe held up her hand with a glare at him and Lucifer immediately stopped talking. She sighed and glanced down at the body they were standing over. “Victim's name is Laurie Strong. She was the manager of Wellington Electric Co. Some employees came in this morning and found her here dead in her office.”

The woman was lying face down on the floor, her skin terribly pale, indicating she'd been dead for some time now. Chloe turned her attention to Ella who was crouched over the body, taking pictures and looking over it. “What have you got for us, Ella?”

“Well, there's marks all over the vic's neck, but they're not from hands or anything. It looks more like they were made by some sort of chain, like a necklace probably. Problem is, she's not wearing a necklace.” Ella stood up so she could look the detective in the eye. “So there's a possibility that the killer might have strangled her with her own necklace and then took it, but either way we don't have our weapon anywhere as far as we've seen.”

“Maybe she was strangled by Christmas tree lights,” Lucifer suggested, glancing toward the tree that stood in the corner of the office. “Very dangerous. It says so right on the box that they're a choking hazard.”

Chloe rolled her eyes and Ella merely shook her head. “I'd actually thought of that as a possibility, I've seen that sort of thing before as a matter of fact, but in those cases the marks looked different. You would have to wrap the lights around the neck several times to make such deep impressions. Whatever strangled her had to have been something much more solid, like metal-- so a necklace, like I said before.”

“Okay, well I think I'm going to go start asking some questions from the employees here. Let me know if you find anything else.” Chloe stepped away from the body on the floor, giving Lucifer a bit of a look that said he should come with her. Lucifer sighed and followed behind her as they left the dead woman's office and made their way downstairs where the employees were gathered. They all looked either terribly upset or just merely in shock.

Thus began the lengthy process of asking everyone there about Laurie, when they last saw her, and getting a general feel of their opinion of her. Almost everyone said the exact same thing, with some variation here and there.

“She would act like she was your best friend at first, but then if she didn't get things her way, she would drag you through the mud.”

“She'd look for any little excuse she could to dock people on their pay, and she refused to actually spend money on things we need for the company, but then brags about her lavish personal spending habits.”

“Honestly she was a bitch and I'm not too surprised this happened.”

Chloe and Lucifer exchanged a look after gathering all the information. “Well, it seems like we've got plenty of motive, now we just need something a little more solid to go on.”

They talked to the actual owner of the company who appeared to be in shock over Laurie's death and whose opinion of her wasn't nearly as bad as the people who worked under her.

“Do you know if anyone might have had a reason to go after Ms. Strong and wanted her dead?”

Mr. Wellington shook his head slowly. “No-- well, I mean there were plenty of people who couldn't stand her, didn't like how she treated them, but I can't imagine anyone wanting to actually kill her.” He sighed and rubbed a hand over his forehead. “Although, you know, the other day I heard her yelling about her ex-husband being in town and wanting something from her.”

“Do you know what it was about?” Chloe asked. Mr. Wellington shook his head again.

“No, something about money, I think. You might want to talk to her son, Tim. He might be able to give you a little more information.”

“Could you give me his contact information?”

“Of course.”

As Mr. Wellington gave Chloe the information, Lucifer decided to wander off and talk to the other people in the office. Two women were sitting together, one looking slightly more distraught while the other seemed to be comforting her.

“I just can't believe this,” the younger woman was saying, appearing to be on the verge of tears. “It's just-- I never thought something like this would happen here! To us! To someone we know.”

“Well, one thing's for sure,” the other woman said with a shake of her head, “we're definitely not getting our Christmas bonus now.”

“Excuse me,” Lucifer said to get their attention. “Yes, sorry, hello. I couldn't help but overhear the two of you talking. I just wanted to ask you two a couple of questions.”

The two women stared at him, looking rather displeased by his interruption. “I thought we already answered your questions,” the younger one said, wiping her face with the back of her hand.

“Ah, no. You just answered all the boring procedural questions the detective had. I have some questions of my own.” He pulled out a chair nearby and sat down in it, gazing at the two women with a rather unnerving smile. “So, tell me, just how much did you hate your boss, hm? Was she controlling? Manipulative? Wouldn't stop at anything to get what she wanted?”

The older woman let out a deep breath and nodded her head. “Yeah, pretty much. Ever since Margret got hired, Laurie just kept adding more and more to her work without ever even giving her a pay raise, then blaming anything that went wrong on her. She even kept threatening to not give any of us a Christmas bonus, but mostly blaming it on Margret for not getting her job done.”

“Which I couldn't do because she kept giving me more and more and more until it wasn't humanly possible to get any of it done!” Margret blurted out. “I do more work than anyone else here in the office and I'm paid the least out of everyone! I think she does it because I'm the youngest, too.”

“My, my, so Ms. Laurie Strong was a veritable Scrooge, was she?” Lucifer said with a grin. “Do you happen to know anything else about her? I love this sort of juicy office gossip, you know.”

“Last month my car broke down and I had a terrible time getting it fixed,” Margret said, her tearful attitude now turning to bitter anger. “Laurie kept blaming me and saying it was my fault for not taking care of it, and basically acting like I deserved it and it's what I get for not having a brand new car like she had-- because she had three shiny cars in her garage, as if she needs that many! Meanwhile, I didn't even have enough to buy a new car in the first place and she thinks I deserve this because I guess being poor is my own fault! Not like I can do anything when she won't give me a damn raise!”

“Mm, spiteful,” Lucifer said, his smile growing larger by the second, as if he were feeding off their anger. “I can see why you'd want to kill her.”

“What? I didn't kill her! Why would you think that--” Margret's face twisted into a scowl. “You really think someone like me would do something like that?”

“Well you clearly hated the woman, so I couldn't really blame you.”

“Lucifer.”

Chloe's voice cut the conversation off short and Lucifer twisted around to see her glaring at him. “Detective! I was just--”

“Yeah, I could hear what you were saying. Come on, we need to go talk to the victim's son.”

Lucifer sighed and stood up. “Fine, fine. Ruin all my fun, why don't you.” He tipped his head to the two women. “Have a lovely Christmas.”

As Chloe and Lucifer drove off to Laurie Strong's house to meet up with her son, Lucifer started talking again, and as it wasn't related to the case, Chloe had to restrain herself from showing her irritation with him.

“Dr. Martin thinks I'm not spending Christmas the way I should be,” he said with a dramatic roll of his eyes. “Can you believe her? Can you even imagine the devil celebrating Christmas any other way than with peppermint shnapps and some naughty girls in Santa's sack?”

Chloe shuddered and tried very hard to pretend he hadn't said that. “It's not entirely unthinkable to be spending Christmas with your family, you know,” she said. “I mean, sure, you have a weird, not so good relationship with your family, but you can still spend it with people who care about you, right?”

“Oh, please,” Lucifer said. “Are you spending it with your mother?”

Chloe glared at him. “Yes, actually, I am. She'll be in town in the next couple of days, in fact.”

“Oh really? Well if that's the case maybe I should spend Christmas with you after all.”

“Hey, you can't just invite yourself over for Christmas,” Chloe growled. “Besides, it's gonna be stressful enough with my mother around.”

“Ooh, family holiday stress. See, that is exactly my point. No good ever comes of spending time with your family, especially on holidays.”

Chloe let out a heavy sigh and decided at this point it was best to just ignore him. They were at the house so she needed to focus on the case.

“I'm so sorry about your mother,” Chloe said once they'd finished introductions with the victim's son. “Do you know of anyone who might've done this? Had something against your mother and wanted to kill her?”

Timothy Strong shook his head slowly, looking rather numb about the whole situation. “No. Well, I mean, my mom didn't have the best reputation, but I can't believe it would ever come to something like this.”

“What sort of reputation did she have?” Lucifer interjected before Chloe could say anything else.

“Just-- she had high expectations for everyone around her, expecting more from everyone than was probably realistic. She always put herself and her own wants and needs before anyone else's.”

“It sounds like you had resentments of your own toward her,” Chloe said, raising an eyebrow. “Did she treat you the same way she treated her employees?”

Timothy sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yes and no. She spoiled me and gave me everything I've ever wanted and even if I messed up she never blamed it on me, she usually found someone else to blame it on.” He made a bit of a face, as if he were clearly referring to something specific, but then he cleared his throat and went on. “Sometimes she would get on me for little things, though. I don't know. I loved my mom, I can't believe that she's gone...”

Lucifer sighed and rolled his eyes, muttering something under his breath that sounded something like calling him a momma's boy. Chloe ignored him and continued with her questioning. “Um, do you know anything about your father? Mr. Wellington said he might have had something to do with this.”

“My father? I really doubt it, I don't think my mom's seen him since after I was born. If you mean her ex-husband, though--”

Lucifer perked up at this and pushed Chloe aside. “What's this? Are you saying your mum had a little fling that resulted in, well-- you?”

Chloe gave Lucifer a Look, but Timothy let out a heavy sigh and nodded his head. “Yeah, exactly. Her husband found out about it later; actually it wasn't until after they'd divorced that he found out he wasn't actually my dad. There was a huge argument and he wanted to stop paying child support, considering I wasn't really his kid.” Timothy began looking a bit uncomfortable, then he sighed and looked away.

“I'm sorry,” Chloe said. “Would you happen to know where we could find him? We'd like to ask him some questions.”

Timothy nodded and sniffed a bit. “Yeah, I can get you his contact.”

Once Lucifer and Chloe left the house, Lucifer started to talk again, and in a way she was impressed he waited this long to start. “So we have a dead Scrooge and a sad Tiny Tim who obviously has some serious daddy issues.”

“Look who's talking,” Chloe muttered under her breath. “Also, what?”

“What, didn't you notice? Ms. Strong refused to give any of her employees their dues or even a Christmas bonus, so she's obviously a Scrooge.”

Chloe squinted at him and slowly nodded her head. “And her son, who is six foot one, is Tiny Tim?”

“Obviously,” Lucifer said with a grin. Chloe rolled her eyes and turned her face away to focus on the road as she drove. “So are we gonna be visited by three ghosts to help us solve this case?”

“Of course not, don't be ridiculous! Ghosts don't exist. Although maybe I could swing something for us.” Lucifer pulled out his phone and started texting someone. Chloe gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, not wanting to know what he was doing or who he was texting and wishing she could just kick him out to the curb right that instant.

“Well, do whatever it is you're going to do. I have some things to work on before following up with Laurie's ex. We need to make sure he's even going to want to talk to us anyway.”

Chloe got out of the car once they'd gotten back to the station and Lucifer watched her go as she stomped off. “Detective! What's gotten into her today?”

#

“Lucifer's acting really weird today,” Chloe muttered as she sat at her desk. Dan, who was standing nearby, glanced at her and raised an eyebrow.

“And how exactly is that any different than normal?”

“No, I mean he keeps relating our case to A Christmas Carol for some reason.”

Dan blinked and looked away. “Alright, that is strange even for him.”

“I don't know, and he kept talking about Christmas and he tried to invite himself over but I said no, and--” She sighed and leaned back in her chair. “I get the feeling he's got nothing to do and nowhere to go for Christmas.”

“What about his brother?”

Chloe shook her head. “I dunno, you know how weird he is about his family.”

“Well, it's your call, but personally I don't think I'd want to be spending Christmas with that guy, especially with your mom there too.”

Chloe inhaled deeply and nodded her head. “Yeah, that would be a disaster.” She paused then glanced back toward Dan. “Are you still planning on coming? I mean, Trixie really wants you there and I think my mom would love to see you, too.”

“Of course,” Dan said with a smile. “It's not like I have anywhere else to be anyway. Plus I wouldn't let Trixie be without her dad on Christmas morning. And hey, you don't have to stress out about anything. It's going to be fine.”

Chloe sighed and nodded her head. “Alright, yeah, it's going to be great.”

#

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“I told you, we don't have any actual ghosts so you'll have to work as a stand in. The demon of Christmas past, present, and future!”

“I repeat: what the hell are you talking about?”

Lucifer sighed then said, “Look, will you just come over here?”

“I can't, I'm after a bounty,” Maze said on the other end of the phone. “And what's with you, anyway? You've never asked me to help with a case before. Is it really that hard?”

“No, it's actually quite average.”

“Then what's the problem?”

Lucifer opened his mouth then closed it again, unsure of how to respond. He really wasn't quite sure what the problem was himself. “Well, ah-- when are you coming back? Where are you, anyway?”

“Washington.”

“D.C? What, were you hired to assassinate the president or something? If so, you would be doing this country a great service.”

“You wish. Washington state. And no, I have no idea when I'll be back, this could take awhile.”

“Oh.” Lucifer tried to hide the disappointment in his voice but failed. He cleared his throat and said, “Well, have a good time there, Maze. I'll see you whenever you return.”

He ended the call and sighed, leaning back against his car and gazing absently up at the sky. He narrowed his eyes and muttered in a dark tone, “I bet you're just loving this, aren't you?”

His foul mood was disrupted by a text from the detective telling him she'd gotten a hold of the victim's ex and she was going to go and talk with him and for Lucifer to go and meet up with her. He sighed and got into his car, determined to push aside all of those nasty _emotions_.

They met with the man at an outdoor cafe. He wore a black suit and sunglasses and all around looked like some sort of important guy, or at the very least, he dressed like he was one. Lucifer followed the detective over to the man's table and she asked, “Are you Jacob Harker?”

“I am,” the man said, straightening out his shirt a bit before resting his arms on the table and gazing at the pair of them. “You must be the detectives investigating Laurie's death?”

“We are. I'm Detective Decker and this is my associate Lucifer Morningstar.”

Lucifer gave the man an almost chilling grin, leaning forward to say, “So you had enough of your ex's shenanigans and decided to choke her out, did you?”

Chloe inhaled sharply and Mr. Harker made a face. “What? Are you seriously accusing me of killing her?”

“Absolutely not--” Chloe said, but Lucifer cut her off.

“Well of course! Fifty percent of murders are done by spouses, or exes in this case I suppose. Plus you had plenty of reason to kill her, didn't you? Her son told us all about the little debacle with paying for child support. If you ask me, that's the best reason to just not have them, am I right?”

Chloe gave him a warning glare and Lucifer backed away a tad before she turned back to Mr. Harker. “We did talk to Timothy earlier and he told us you had a fight with Laurie about that awhile ago.”

“Yeah, that was years ago!” Mr. Harker said with a shake of his head. “That was back when Tim was still a minor. He's in college now so I wouldn't even be paying for him.”

“Laurie's boss also said he'd heard her yelling about some sort of recent argument with you. Can you confirm this?”

Mr. Harker sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Yes, alright. We did have a fight recently, but it was something she started. Honestly I didn't want anything to do with her after the divorce was finalized and all that, but she's the one who keeps-- who kept dragging me back into things.” He took off his sunglasses and rubbed his hands over his face with a sigh.

“Mm, sounds like someone else I know,” Lucifer said, leaning close to Chloe to murmur in her ear. She glared at him then returned her attention to Mr. Harker.

“Can you tell us where you were this morning?” Chloe asked.

“I was just getting in from the airport from a business trip,” he said with a frown. “As soon as I got back that's when I heard about it.”

“Alright, well thank you for your time.”

Once they were back at the station, Lucifer began complaining again. “Are we even getting anywhere with this case?”

“Of course we are. What has gotten into you today? You seem really restless.”

“I'm not, I just--” He cut himself off and glanced around the precinct, sighing.

“Is this about Christmas?” Chloe asked. Lucifer's head snapped around to stare at her so fast it gave her a sense of whiplash.

“What? No, absolutely not, what gave you that idea?”

“Well you kept talking about it earlier so I thought--” She sighed and shook her head. “Look, if you really don't have anywhere else to go or anyone to spend it with, I'd be happy to have you over, and I'm sure my mother would love to see you, too.”

“Please, detective, I don't need your pity invites, and besides that I'll be having a lovely time at Lux, I assure you.”

Chloe wasn't buying it. She nodded her head a little and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Well, if you're sure, just know that we're here for you.”

Lucifer pursed his lips, looking distinctly uncomfortable, then Chloe stepped away from him and he let out a heavy breath. He was starting to understand why it was the detective always dived headfirst into her work now. He'd much rather be focusing on this case than have to think about Christmas at this point.

“We've got another lead,” Dan said. “One of the employees told us about someone they saw retreating the building before they got to work this morning and found Ms. Strong dead in her office.”

“Did you get a name?” Chloe asked.

“Sam Howard; apparently he's a friend of Ms. Strong's son. They said they saw him running from the building early this morning. If you ask me that's pretty incriminating. And get this, apparently she hated him being around her son and kept trying to keep them apart for some reason.”

Chloe and Lucifer exchanged a look before she returned her attention to Dan. “Do you have any information on where we can find him?”

Within half an hour, Chloe and Lucifer were knocking on the door of the apartment of Sam Howard. “Mr. Howard, LAPD, we just want to ask you some questions.”

There was a strange sound from the other side of the door, and after a few seconds of waiting, the door opened and a distraught young man peered out at them with what appeared to be tears staining his face.

“Mr. Howard?” Chloe said. “I'm Detective Decker. We'd like to ask you some questions regarding the murder of Laurie Strong.”

The man let out a shaky breath then nodded his head and stepped aside. “Y-yeah, okay, come on in.”

They stepped into the apartment, which was relatively small and a little messy. Chloe fixed her gaze on Sam and said, “A witness said they saw you running from the office Ms. Strong worked at before they came in to work and found her dead. Could you tell us what you were doing?”

Sam sat back in a chair and let out another shaky breath, rubbing at his face. “I was going there to talk to Laurie, and I hoped I could do it when no one else was around, but--” He bit his lip and looked away from them.

“But what?” Chloe pressed.

Sam hesitated, then he said, “When I got there, I found her dead in her office. I panicked and ran away. I know that just made me look more guilty, but--” He laid his head in his hands and shuddered. “I swear I didn't kill her. I would never do something like that, even with everything she did to us--”

“You mean you and Tim?” Chloe asked. “They told us you were friends with him, and his mother didn't want you around. Could you tell us why?”

“It's because I'm gay,” Sam said in a rather bitter voice. “Laurie hated me because of that and she didn't want Tim around me at all. But she refused to see that--”

“That you were more than just Tim's friend?” Lucifer said, a rather wide smile curling over his lips. “My, my, this is an interesting turn of events.”

“Tim said he told her the truth last night,” Sam said with a slow shake of his head. “They had a huge fight about it. He just wanted to say he was spending Christmas with me no matter what she said or thought about us. I went over this morning to try and make peace. It didn't go the way I hoped it would.”

“Alright, well we're going to have to take you in for further questioning,” Chloe said with a light nod. “In the mean time, I think we should go and talk to Tim again.”

“This is getting much more interesting now,” Lucifer said with a grin. “I'm excited!”

Chloe just rolled her eyes.

#

“Tim? We've got some more questions we'd like to ask you.”

Chloe and Lucifer both stood at the front door, and when there was no answer they exchanged a look of concern. Chloe knocked on the door again and called out, “Tim, open the door! We know you're in there!”

“Perhaps Tiny Tim has run off,” Lucifer suggested. Chloe narrowed her eyes and it looked like she was considering breaking down the door, but then the door opened and Tim stepped out, rubbing a hand over his face.

“Oh, you two really are back,” he mumbled. Chloe tilted her head to the side.

“We wanted to ask you some follow up questions based on some new information. It's about Sam Howard, your--”

“Your boyfriend,” Lucifer said with a grin. Chloe let out an irritated sigh but nodded her head.

Tim stared at the two of them before turning away. “Yeah, thought so. Sam texted me just a little bit ago to warn me about this.” He stepped back into the house and the two of them followed him slowly. He seemed to be wandering aimlessly.

“He said you had an argument with your mother last night. Did something happen?”

Tim snorted, sounding like something between laughter and sobs. “I was just so tired of everything she was doing and saying to me. She denied my relationship with Sam and wouldn't even acknowledge that I'm gay, just saying it was all on him for being a bad influence. Called him horrible names. I finally confronted her last night and told her I was spending Christmas with Sam instead of her because he was my boyfriend. Then she went berserk.”

He curled his arms around himself and now it was obvious he was sobbing. Lucifer sighed and rolled his eyes but Chloe elbowed him in the stomach. “What happened, Tim?”

“She yelled at me, threw things at me, and said if that was really true I wasn't really her son. I wasn't even human, and that she would just throw me out and cut off all funding so I couldn't finish college because it's what I'd deserve if I really was like Sam.”

“So you got the jump on her and killed her yourself?” Lucifer said, a dangerous tone in his voice.

“No--” Tim choked out, then he stopped and shook his head. “No, at least not last night. I went to talk to her again this morning at the office before anyone got there. I wanted to try and talk some sense into her, thought maybe she just needed some time to cool down. But it was worse.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes. “What did she do?”

“She said she would forgive me,” Tim said with a bitter look on his face, “if I dumped Sam. She said she would make it easier for me-- by the way she was talking and what she was saying, it sounded like she wanted to do something to ruin his life forever, maybe even go so far as to kill him herself. I just got so angry that I--”

Tim shuddered and fell backwards into a chair, burying his face in his hands. “Oh, god, I killed her. I hit her and then she tried to attack me, then I strangled her with her damn necklace! I didn't realize what I'd done until it was over, I--”

Chloe sighed and laid a hand on Tim's shoulder in a comforting sort of way before pulling the handcuffs from her belt and murmuring, “Timothy Strong, you're under arrest for the murder of your mother. I'm sorry.”

“I know,” Tim said in a shaky voice, letting her put the cuffs on him. “All I wanted was a happy Christmas for once.”

#

“Hey, you okay?” Chloe asked, gazing up at Lucifer who was leaning against his car with an odd look on his face. He shook his head before glancing toward her, setting his jaw.

“That case was-- well, don't our cases normally end with a fun chase? Not tearful confessions?”

Chloe sighed and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Things aren't always as black and white as people make them out to be, you know. I feel sorry for the kid, to be honest.”

Lucifer frowned and reached into his pocket for his flask. “It put me into a terrible mood. It might even ruin my Christmas.”

Chloe narrowed her eyes. “Were you ever planning on doing something for Christmas? I know you don't like your family so I doubt you're going to spend it with them.”

“You are one hundred percent correct on that,” he said, taking a swig from the flask.

“But I get the feeling you don't want to just spend it alone or partying at Lux, either,” Chloe went on. “Come on, why don't you come over and spend Christmas with us? I'm sure both my mom and Trixie would love it.” She smiled at him, and for a moment he thought of taking her offer, unable to resist her smile, then he looked away with a sigh.

“No, it's fine, detective. I have other plans.”

Chloe didn't look convinced, but she didn't push the matter either. “Alright, if you say so. Don't hesitate to call if you change your mind, though.”

On Christmas morning, Lucifer sat alone in his penthouse, gazing out the window with a hollow look in his eyes. Perhaps Linda had been correct. Maybe he should be spending time with the people who cared about him. But who actually did care about him? No one cared about him, he was the devil. Everyone hated him. It was better for him to be alone. The devil doesn't celebrate Christmas.

At just that moment, the elevator dinged and he turned to see the doors opening. Linda stepped out and smiled at him. “Hi. I hope I'm not intruding.”

“Doctor!” Lucifer stood up, surprised to see her. “What are you doing here? Didn't you have somewhere else to go for this holiday?”

“Well, no, actually I didn't,” Linda said as she stepped toward him. “And I thought you could use some company anyway.”

“Oh, well, that's very kind of you, doctor, but you really didn't have to--”

Someone else stepped out of the elevator then, making Lucifer stop. Maze came up beside Linda and put her hands on her hips. “What? You were making a huge deal about me not being around and now you're not gonna say anything?”

“Oh, uh-- I guess you finished your bounty already?”

“Nah, but I thought I'd come back. Linda might have convinced me.” Linda turned away, trying to hide a guilty smile.

Lucifer tried to find words but kept stumbling over them, then the elevator dinged again and he turned once more to see Chloe step in. “D-detective!”

Dan, Trixie, and Penelope Decker followed behind her, and Chloe smiled at him. “Um, hi,” she said. “This was all Maze's idea, by the way.”

“It was Linda's idea,” Maze said quickly, crossing her arms over her chest. “I just thought it was a good idea, that's all.”

Lucifer stared at all of them with a suspicious look on his face. “Are you all planning something sinister?”

“Lucifer, didn't I tell you that this was a time to be with the people who care about you?” Linda said.

“Well yes, but--”

“We all care about you, duh,” Maze said with a somewhat disgusted look on her face.

“I-- you do?”

Chloe rolled her eyes and walked over to him, shoving a wrapped package into his hand. “Why would I have invited you over if we didn't? Here, Merry Christmas.”

Lucifer didn't even need to unwrap the present to feel a strange sensation in his chest. More _emotions_ , but this time he decided not to bury them deep down and to just let himself feel them. They felt good. He smiled and tore the paper away before murmuring, “Thank you, detective.”


End file.
